“The Gout and the Guillotine” Exhibition to Open at USD’s Humanities Center

“The Gout and the Guillotine: The Satirical Imagination in Britain 1760-1799” will open at the University of San Diego Humanities Center on March 14. The exhibition draws thought-provoking parallels between today’s nexus of disease, politics and social change and the societal and economic upheaval in 18th century Europe.

The exhibition highlights the work of caricaturists James Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson, Frederick George Byron and Isaac Cruikshank. The exhibit includes a special focus on Gillray, whose most famous drawing, “The Gout,” held up the monarchy and wealthy classes to ridicule by grotesquely characterizing gout – a painful arthritic condition brought on by gluttony and indolence.  

“This exhibit is a snapshot of a period of human experience,” said Brian Clack, A. Vassiliadis Director of the Humanities Center. “It was only a 10-year period, but during that time, issues of pain and disease, political radicalism and revolutionary terror met the role of the satirist and the satirical. This exhibit provides an opportunity for open-ended discussion of these issues in today’s global climate, and what it means to be human in the time of the pandemic.”

The exhibition will be on display from March 14 to May 20 in the Humanities Center Gallery. It is free and open to the public. Information on the exhibition can be found on the Humanities Center Gallery’s website. The exhibition is co-curated by Derrick Cartwright, Director of University Galleries and Brain Clack, A. Vassiliadis Director of the Humanities Center.

“The Gout and the Guillotine” opens as the Humanities Center enters its sixth year. The center was founded in October 2016 with generous support from Carol Vassiladis, Mary and Churcill Knapp, and the Keck Foundation with a goal of establishing a comprehensive center dedicated to accentuating the liberal arts as a core of university education.

About the University of San Diego

Strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Knauss School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2021, USD was named a “Laudato Si’ University” by the Vatican with a seven-year commitment to address humanity’s urgent challenges by working together to take care of our common home.